Left Behind

“No one will be left behind.” Those encouraging words were spoken with what felt like at the time, heartfelt conviction. I believed them. This is Alberta after all. When Premier Redford spoke following the worst disaster to ever impact our province, and toured our town where she had been known to stop for coffee, I felt hopeful.

Seeing Prime Minister Harper’s face as his helicopter flew over the miles and miles of water that enveloped our countryside,

.

I KNEW he understood the devastation

But now two months and 22 days later we are LEFT BEHIND. Still homeless. Getting NO help. NO communication. The anguish we felt after the initial shock of the devastation has turned into a new kind. An anguish of helplessness. So many mistakes have been made and they are not being made right.

We have had our rights as homeowners trampled upon. For three weeks we watched from the sidelines as our house sat under water contaminated with sewage and dead livestock. I still remember seeing the first up close footage of our house on the news, released from the RCMP. Seeing them boat up to our front door and then NOT show the actual entrance now makes sense.

We were hearing over and over again that they were using locksmiths in their systematic search of the town. Well, we all know now…THAT locksmith was a size 13. Not only was our door broken down, and then left open for the remaining weeks, but we also had a basement window completely removed. But that wasn’t the worst part. Even though we registered immediately after evacuating with Red Cross and telling officers at the time of evacuation we were all safely out, I still understood the need for it. After all it was an EMERGENCY situation and lives could be at risk. But what I didn’t understand is why they tracked sewage through our ENTIRE house and looked through all our drawers. Our house looked as if it had been SEARCHED, but not for people. They opened all our kitchen cupboards (pretty sure mini people weren’t hiding inside) and even looked through our night tables and top shelf of our walk in closet. Again…makes sense NOW doesn’t it. GUNS!!! Why they felt the need to actively search for guns is beyond me (and no we didn’t even have any). After this search we felt violated. Now to add to the fun nobody knows who will be paying for all the damage done by the RCMP in their searches. At first they were picking up tab…now not so much. Our local MLA and Leader of the Official Opposition is asking that they pay up immediately. Well that is GREAT…doesn’t help those of us who don’t really care about a door right now, as we don’t even have a house to live in though.

This is the latest view of our house from the outside. Looks pretty much the same…except for the generator and dumpster.

The inside is a different story. The sewage that makes up the basement has become solid and grown mould on top. The main beam is still dripping wet. Our basement stairs are giving way and the main floor is now sloping.

Government contracted Tervita FINALLY started work on our house on Day 78. Even after multiple independent reports that state the house needs to be torn down. What is the point in starting “remediation” on a house to just re-assess again and again and THEN have to tear it down. Talk about a waste of tax payers money. They are insistent that the house can be fixed. First Rick Fraser The Associate Minister of Regional Recovery tried to convince us our houses would be “better” after. Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths said they would be “cleaner. ” Now talking to Tervita they are not looking for the way things were before. That is gone. Think of your house as a character home I have been told. My five year old house. Yup…it’s got character all right, I would probably use a different word.

Tervita has gutted our basement and garage and taped off our main floor (even though it has mould too).

Look they even had time to have a little fun!!! (Glad they are taking their jobs SO SERIOUSLY)

Tervita has been a HUGE problem.

At first glance, they were the heroes. I mean they fixed the Saddledome after all and they would remind anyone and everyone. We have one of the NFH (not fit for habitation) homes yet it took 78 DAYS before they started any work on our house! We had an initial “Remediation Assessment” to which we then had to wait almost 3 weeks for our “Remediation Meeting.” This was 2 hours of no actual quantifiable information on our house. We knew more than they did. We hired independent structural and environmental engineers to assess our house. Tervita couldn’t even tell us the qualifications of the people who assessed our house. The only piece of paper they wanted us to have, was their start work waiver. Which basically allowed them to make all decisions in conjunction with the province on our house and not fix anything they remove. Needless to say we did NOT SIGN. We eventually came to an agreement on the work being done to eventually have the NFH sticker removed. We were then told 10-14 days until they started work. 10 days later and they wanted to do another assessment. Then another 12 days go by and the phone call comes for another meeting to discuss the “re”-reassment. Fast forward another week and we head out to High River for our meeting, which surprise will be held at the house…well in the driveway. We are then met by one Tervita employee and 2 Service Master employees. They know nothing about the reassessment. They want access to the house to decide their scope of work. Could this process get any more inefficient?

We gave them permission to begin what we believed was dangerous and futile work only to be told, “but we worked on Katrina.” Oh boy…I don’t consider that a stellar resume. Yes, these workers contracted by Tervita are from the United States. The day they started work the phone call to ask for access to the house came from the United States. Why does this not feel right to me?

So our house is un-livable but we still are paying our mortgage, because the bank surely doesn’t want our house but will take it in an instant if they have too. We are not only still paying our monthly taxes to the town but they even went UP! Since the flood the value of our house has been cut in half at least. Yet we are paying our full tax assessed value.

At the end of this month we are again…in a position of nowhere to go. Our insurance is doing NOTHING! Shouldn’t home insurance help you when you are unable to live in your house? Red Cross has millions of dollars in flood relief but is it getting to the people who need it? We have been assigned a case worker that we now need to wait weeks for a meeting with. The DRP (Disaster Recovery Program) is in chaos. The Premier said initial payment of ten thousand within 2 weeks. We are at almost 3 months and we have not seen a single cent. The housing in Saddlebrook still doesn’t have the “show and tell” units that they paraded for the media, we are told they are “in transit.” However how does living in Saddlebrook help those of us who had to relocate to Calgary? My husband lost his job in High River after the flood, and has started a new job in Calgary. The kids have started dance and karate. Calgary is now our home. With the rental market in Calgary being pushed to a 1% vacancy with all the flood victims and students returning, where will we fit in?

Another round of government info sessions start tomorrow in Bragg Creek with Municipal Affairs Minister Doug Griffiths. Was anything accomplished from the last round? People left more angry and frustrated than before. I have been to all these meetings. There has not once been any useful information, just broken promises and pleas for time and initiatives to do better. This isn’t good enough. It isn’t even close. I don’t know if I will attend the next meeting, but if I did I would say one thing to Minister Griffiths.

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